Back on October 25, 2014, I had the pleasure of being able to interview a man with an amazing life story to share. For almost 2 hours, Mr. John O’Hara (93 years young) kept me engrossed in his words. He shared about his family’s immigration to the United States from England (1921-1923) to enlisting into the Navy after Pearl Harbor, nearly dying trapped below on a sinking ship to how he has dealt with PTSD and so much more. He also provides his opinion on war not being glorious – as portrayed in films. It was an action packed retelling of one man’s amazing life.

Mr. O’Hara’s video interview runs at just over 1 hour and 52 minutes. (My plan is to attempt to divide it into 2 parts.) That’s a long YouTube video by many standards. I have attached the link to the full length video for you to watch. Please, watch it at you leisure. He has so many memories. Who could edit them out? I can’t. However, that’s the one good thing about documenting life histories. I don’t have to edit if I don’t want to do so. Each person’s retelling is how they saw and experienced life. It’s there own truth. I comprehend that something important and wise for me to hear may not be so for another. However, something that isn’t so interesting to me may be just what another person needs to hear for where they are in their present life. Therefore, I have decided not to edit the video life histories of my subjects other than obvious quality issues or recording errors. The histories of our elders are too valuable to compress into more convenient sound bites. I cannot judge or deem what is most important from one’s life experience that it should be kept in a documentary vs. on the virtual cutting room floor.

The movie, “Unbroken”, is set for release on Christmas Day here in the United States. It’s about Louis Zamperini’s amazing life and story of remarkable survival at sea then as a WW II POW in Japan. It is also about overcoming PTSD, learning to forgive and how to get back to living given the horrors he experienced. Mr. O’Hara was a runner like Louie and he was a survivor but his story doesn’t include being a POW. However, he too has experienced PTSD, having to forgive and his has been an amazing life so far.

Mr. O’Hara, John, saw action during WW II on the coast of North Africa as part of Operation Torch. His squad assisted in getting General Patton’s soldiers on the beach. Imagine being told, “Remember. You are not important. Get those men on the beach!” An eery feeling comes over me as I envision John’s recall that Patton’s men “looked right through you…like you weren’t there” as they scaled the ropes down into the boats set for the beach. Seeing bodies fly into the air crashing down into the waters as they took on fire from the enemy. For me it’s my imagination. For John, it’s memories as real today as they were then.

It is soon after off the coast of Morocco that the attack transporter John was on, the USS Scott, was torpedoed by German U-boats and sunk. John was down under in his compartment with 4 others. Trapped. John should have died that day. He recalls in great detail what happened to him. His lungs filling with oil slicked water. Holding his breath. Lungs about to explode from the pressure. His body hit in two places. Yet, miraculously, he survived. His comrades – didn’t. How do you live with that? He stills wonders “why not me”. Yet it was the fact that he did somehow survive that changed how he behaved towards his charges later on in battle as he rose up in rank. It also affected how he approached life not fearing to take chances to be happy, not worrying about the future, living for the present.

John returned to the war after his survival leave. Another commanding officer had him return to sea right away for fear that John wouldn’t be able to handle being on the water if he stayed on shore as planned. He was already showing what we would call flashbacks. Being fearful of the water would be the kiss of death for a Navy man. He was able to be reassigned as a seaman, no longer wanting to be a firefighter down below deck.

He was now part of the USS Alabama. While on the Alabama, John first sailed to the Arctic to participate, in the dead of winter, in the Battle North Atlantic with the American/British fleet. It was a covert operation. Well, it didn’t stay covert due to the hubris of a famous ballplayer on board. As a result, the Alabama then began its journey down through the Panama Canal to begin playing its part in the Pacific Asiatic fleet until the end of the war. John talks in-depth about his experiences as part of the 3rd and 5th fleet from 1943-1945. The strategy of McArthur, Halsey and Mitscher explained. He recalls the fear executing Mitscher’s orders to shoot directly straight up into the air to shoot down Japanese zamikase. Fear because if the ammunition came back down on the ships, “we could blow up”. The experience of seeing “large brown bags” floating by in the water only to be told those were the bloated bodies of the Japanese airmen having been shot down. Finally the experience of patrolling in Japan after the surrender.

The final 40 minutes of Mr. O’Hara’s interview centers on life after the war. He speaks with blatant honesty about how he feels Hollywood glorifies battle and misinforms the public to what actually happened during some events of the war. He gives his opinion on Edward Snowden’s leaking of classified information and asks what would have been the outcome in WW II if Snowden had not maintained classified information from the Germans and Japanese. He speaks a little about the recent poor care of veterans at the VA hospitals. Agree with him or not, he served his country during a critical time in history. He’s entitled to his opinion.

John also has been open about the fact that he had what we now diagnose as PTSD. Back then it was called being ‘shellshocked’. There has always been a means of output for John when he was feeling overwhelmed, anxious, stressed. It was his writing. During the war, John amassed 70 poems as a way to “really control myself”. He has continued to write. There are donated copies of his writings including one at the Newport (RI) War Library. As an homage to his wife of 55 years, after her death he began speaking to others about his experiences in the war. He specifically targets talking to high school students. John does not accept any money or donations for what he does. Any attempts have resulted in being donated to other veteran focused organizations.

Here is John in his own words on how he has lived his life since returning from WW II and dealing with PTSD.

“Worry about today, not tomorrow. Material things can be replaced but your body can’t. Live today and do things you’re supposed to and if you feel yourself getting worked up…just say to yourself, it’s not worth it…it’s not worth it and get it outta ya. And that’s the way I live.”

This past Sunday I had the pleasure to interview a nice gentleman named Fred. Fred is an 82-year-old African-American who grew up the first 10 years of his life on the farm in Austin, Ohio. He and his family then moved to nearby Columbus. Given his age, you can calculate that Fred lived on the farm from 1932 (when he was born) until the family moved in 1942.

I had thought that Fred, a modest man, would need some convincing and encouragement to speak about his life. Instead, I was gifted with an eloquent and detailed review of his experiences that lasted almost two hours total. Fred shared about not having the creature comforts and technology that we take for granted today. He slept on a straw mattress in a house without heat or electricity. Being on a farm during the Depression sheltered him and his family from being without food. He recalls that farmers helped the community out and held several rows of their crops open to anyone in need. Do they do that today? Upon moving to Columbus at the age of 10, his family was able to live in a home with electricity but still no heat. Remember party lines? Fred does. Fred continued to share his memories of childhood then into college and beyond. When a gift like this comes along, you let that person speak all they want. Fred didn’t disappoint.

I am pleased to bring to you the first of two outtakes from this conversation; Fred recalling his early life from 1932 to 1952. I think you will be amazed by what he remembers. It is not often that you can learn from living history. What Fred shares is so much better and more worthwhile than anything you can read in a school history book. I hope you will enjoy it and share it with others, especially your children. Our society has come a mind-bogglingly long way in a very short time. It benefits us to stop periodically to realize this, remember and be appreciative of all the hard work and innovation that has occurred in less than 100 years.

I was able to record my first life review for Sofia – Wisdom of the Ages on September 21, 2014. My subject was Linda, who was born in the Columbus, Ohio area in 1948. Linda is African American and was open to recalling how it was growing up in Columbus during a period of great social change in the United States. In her retelling of this time period, she also included memories of her father’s experiences as a child even earlier on during this era. Her father’s experience contained more examples of racial segregation than what she experienced, although she did experience it herself. She also compared life as a black in the North vs. when she briefly lived in Tennessee as a young woman.

Our overall conversation lasted well over 90 minutes. However, it was in the final minutes that Linda interjected saying that she wanted to add something. She was struck by a memory that had just returned to her. She had recalled a few years back being asked to be on her high school’s class reunion committee. She was surprised that she had been asked to participate since although the school had been integrated, there was still the tendency of the races not to socialize or mix. She continued to relate a discussion had started during one planning meeting in which the class prom was remembered. Linda divulged that the prom hadn’t meant much to her “group”. “It didn’t even have the music we liked.” (paraphrased) She found it interesting that the others in the group weren’t aware that this was happening; that it never occurred to them that their black classmates would have had other preferences in music or differing opinions as to how the prom should be planned. As the conversations continued that night, Linda said the group of women had several other instances of being unaware of how the other “groups” felt or viewed things at the time. This unawareness had also taken place on both sides.

Linda finished by saying she was amazed at this unawareness that had occurred back then in her high school. It was just how things were done then. Today, a prom committee would rarely if ever, consider just catering to one race’s music preference, for instance. She was struck by how much had changed since her time in high school and for high schools today. Although we can argue there is still so much more we can improve upon for race relations in our country, “now that we know better, [we try to] do better.”

I hope you will take the time to view Linda’s retelling. It was very interesting to hear her recall her childhood, in general. I cannot do justice to her own words. Please go listen to her eloquently speak for herself.

Today is a fury of last minute prep, brainstorming questions and actually writing them down, not keeping them in my head. Later tonight will be my first official recording of an interview for my Sofia-Wisdom of the Ages project. Since my subject is in Ohio and I’m in Florida, the wonder’s of technology are being attempted to pull this interview off, hopefully without a hitch.

I’m looking forward to hearing about the life experiences of this woman as a young adult during the 1960s. What was her experience not only as a woman during the Equal Rights movement but also as an African American in the Northern States during the Civil Rights movement? So much changed during this time. Did it affect how she raised her family? Now 40 years after the Civil Rights Act, what are her thoughts, opinions, experiences? What are her insights, lessons that she wants to share with the younger generations in her family? What does she still want to accomplish?

Stay tuned for the video and some future posts discussing what occurred and what Impressions I took away from it. I’m thinking she will have a lot of interesting information to for me to digest. I look forward to sharing it.